“To you, or to me?” he asked, and tapped her nose before she could swat his hand away and turn from him.
She let out a loud sigh. “Perry.”
He didn’t want to listen to her lie to him and tell him she wasn’t interested. “What did I tell you about lying?” he growled, and decided he knew how to change the subject.
With her back still to him, he headed down her hallway.
“No!” she yelled, and shocked the shit out of him when she raced faster than he thought she would.
Kylie flew around him, pushing him hard, so that he almost fell against the wall. Grabbing the door to the middle room, she yanked it closed with enough force to shake the house.
“You need to leave,” she said with enough conviction that if she’d spoken like that when he’d kissed her his dick would have gone limp.
“I know,” he said, not fazed by the sudden hard, almost cold look she gave him. The sensual creature he’d caressed a moment before was now all business. Possibly she protected her work, but more than that, he now believed she didn’t want him seeing the elaborate camera system she’d rigged around her house. And if she was digging deep into the case of the teenage girls being abducted, it didn’t surprise him if that created a bit of paranoia in her. “But I’m coming back.”
He turned before she could say anything, or tell him no, and headed toward the door. “It will be a couple hours possibly, but when I do, I’d love for you to show me that surveillance equipment you’ve got set up around your house.”
Perry opened the door and let himself out quickly, closing it behind him, and regretted that he couldn’t have enjoyed the expression that he knew was on her face right now.
Kylie pressed her hand against her hallway wall. The coolness of it did little to soothe the fire burning inside her, not just from that damn kiss but also from his parting words.
“Fuck you, Perry,” she snapped, hitting the wall and pulling her hand away when her palm stung from the frustrated slap.
Heading to the front door, she locked it and turned around, staring at her living room. Perry’s interest was physical. Damn, was it physical. If he came back later tonight she would be in trouble. Her interest and desire were as strong as his.
And if he was her killer?
“He’s coming back,” she said, knowing it was true. Just the thought of it created a heat inside her that swelled quickly until the moist flesh between her legs pulsed feverishly. “Shit,” she hissed, and combed her hair out of her face with her fingers.
Returning to the middle bedroom, she pushed open the door, chastising herself for forgetting to lock it. She’d only put her head on her pillow for a minute and had been out like a light in no time. But she was awake now.
Paul had told her Perry had a good track record as a cop. From what she’d seen when she watched several officers from his force working that crime scene, they were all well trained. It was time to dig deeper, learn more about every police officer, and every other employee, who worked at the station.
“It’s going to be a night at the computer,” she conceded, still talking to herself as she moved the mouse across the mouse pad and cleared the screen. Then plopping down in her chair, she stared at the chat box that had appeared since she’d taken her nap.
The message came in half an hour ago. If Perry had made it into this room and to her computer, out of curiosity about her thesis and research, he would have seen this message. Also, this was the second time he’d shown up at her house when a message had appeared on her computer, which meant he couldn’t have sent them, not unless he was incredibly good at sending messages from his phone while walking. The chat program she was using would have told her if the message came from a phone though, and it didn’t. Wherever PeteTakesU was, he was on a home computer. If he was even her guy. If he was her guy, then Perry was innocent.
“It’s time to find out,” she said out loud, and then pulled up the buddy list that showed PeteTakesU was online but idle. She typed a message:
She scrubbed her head furiously with her fingernails, scratching her scalp and glaring at her knees as she pressed them together. Teenage girls were dying, another one earlier today, and it was Kylie’s job to stop the perpetrator before someone else’s daughter lost her life. It was more than Kylie’s job, it was her responsibility, no one else’s, to put an end to this monster’s madness.
The pressure of her job didn’t bother her. Taking the heat for another death was something she would live with. But slipping because a cop was too damn sexy for his own good wasn’t something she could live with. Jumping up from her desk, she moved through her home, making sure all lights were out, doors and windows securely locked, and the alarm was turned on. She flipped on the light that would shine outside the front door and make it easier to see anyone approaching her home through the cameras.
Cameras that obviously Perry had noticed. She blew out a breath, wondering whether a shower would do her any good or if running soap over her body and touching herself would only increase the fire smoldering deep inside her that refused to go out.
She paused in her hallway, torn between showering and returning to the computer to work. “You know you want to shower for when he returns.” Which was argument enough not to shower. There was work to do, and she’d be damned if she wasted time primping for a man just because he created sensations inside her that she hadn’t felt in years, if ever.
Her computer chimed and she hurried into the computer room, sliding into her chair. PeteTakesU had answered her. She stared at the bold, black font, pursing her lips together while her heart started beating quickly.
The thin-line cursor blinked eagerly in the response box while she focused on the words until her eyes burned. Blinking several times, she sucked in a breath. Her fingers posed over the keyboards. Her heart raced in her chest while adrenaline pumped through her and made her palms wet. This was what she did, what she was known for. Now was the time to narrow down her list of suspects, starting with PeteTakesU.
She needed the perfect, saucy, no-cares-in-the-world response. It was time to clear her head of everything in her world and think like a teenager. It was time to find out if PeteTakesU was her killer.
She smiled. “If you’re my guy, you’re quick.” Well, she was quick, too.
Kylie clicked on the large smiley-face emoticon and then clicked “send.” This was how it was done. This was how the perp snared his victims. Pick a comfortable topic, start chatting, and the unsuspecting victim would relax until she didn’t feel like she was talking to a stranger anymore. Kylie entered into the mind of her killer, thinking like he would, directing the conversation the way he would. She could make him relax and unsuspecting, too.
She stared at the next message, contemplating her best response so he would ask her to meet him. The sooner she knew whether he was a teenager or not, the better.
He wanted her to ask how he knew who she was. She decided to take the bait. Give him what he wanted and get him to ask her to meet him. Teenage girls these days were forward. They knew what they wanted and didn’t hesitate. An image of Kathleen Long, her gray, dead body lying straight on the cold table at the morgue where Kylie had gone earlier, was the ruthless truth as to what happened to girls who thought they knew what they were doing and acted without parental consent. Kathleen Long had been forbidden to meet the boy she’d been talking to online. Kylie read the faxed report that had been typed up by Perry after he interviewed the parents before coming to see her. His report was inconclusive and he stated follow-ups were pending, which was probably where he headed after leaving her house, to interview Kathleen’s friends and learn more about who she went to meet.
